On the west side of the park, there are
a children’s play area, basketball court, covered slab with tables, and,
near all these amenities is a monument to the Snohomish County Council and
the Parks Dept.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

On the
east side of Miner's Corner County Park there are underground petroleum pipelines
and overhead electrical power lines.
see Part 1Part 2

On the
west side of the park there's a playground for young children.

The west side of the park also has toilets, a basketball court, a covered slab with tables, a monument to the Snohomish County Council and the Parks Dept. and, near all these amenities
is a play structure.

Since
Miner’s Corner is in Snohomish County, perhaps the Monroe Correctional Complex
inspired this play-structure.

Let’s play Hide & Seek because there’s
an awesome hollow log in the weedy ditch, "perfect" for hiding.

Or
maybe under the footbridge is a good hiding place.

I'm certain they don't want children to be tripped
or speared on decorative log landscaping ... surely the County’s landscape engineers considered every detail when they
designed this park ... but having a surplus of fallen trees is sooo tempting.

None the less ... petroleum pipelines, power lines, a profusion of noxious weeds (Ragweed, Scotch Broom, etc) ... a sandbox near a pond, hollow logs near play structures, numerous logs with massive root tangles and logs along pathways which have projecting limbs and fractured spear-like breaks ... and lots of large rocks that will be slippery when it rains (this is the Pacific Northwest).

And, all of this interpretative park design because King County coughed up mitigation funds to build the Brightwater sewage plant in Snohomish County.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

On the east side of Miner's Corner County Park there are
underground petroleum pipelines and overhead electrical power lines. see Part 1Part 3

On the west side of the park there's a
playground for young children. This area has a climbing structure, slide, swings and a large sandbox. The sandbox is located next to a pond
with elaborately shaped cement walls.

The pond, when full, spills over the cement wall and water is channeled around the sandbox and under a footbridge, which is
near the children’s climbing structure.

The entire play area is landscaped with large rocks, logs (some solid, some hollow) and large logs with intact root masses.

The first three photos were taken April 2014 and the
last three were taken September 2014.

Also, for different perspectives of the sandbox area – the large sculpture-like metal sand funnel can be seen
in photo no.1 and no.2

drainage away from sandbox area,
towards play structure (not shown in this set of photos).

pond spillway

A person noticed I
was taking photos of the sandbox area and asked if I had seen the child’s ball
in the pond.She commented how
tempting the floating ball would be to a child and then she remarked, “Why
would they place a pond and ditch so close to a sandbox?”

Friday, September 26, 2014

Snohomish County’s Department of Parks has suggested
(much like a tag team of old style car salesmen who've cornered you in their office
with the door closed) … that Wellington Hills Park should become something it is not.

You see, Snohomish County was given the opportunity to spend “free”
taxpayer money - given to it by King County because King County
didn’t want the Brightwater sewage plant in their county – they wanted it in
Snohomish County … and so tax money (with the fancy name, “mitigation”) changed hands.

Unfortunately, the residents of both North King County
and South Snohomish County, living in the Woodinville Washington area, have become
the targets of a massive redevelopment project; better known as the proposed
Wellington Hills “Tournament-Level Sports Complex”, the brainchild (?) of the Department of Parks.

BTW, using the word “park” with this plan is an insult
to all the small and large parks scattered across this Nation, Canada, Europe and other places – where there are parks for people of all ages to walk, stroll, hike, sit, rest, picnic, toss Frisbees,
and enjoy peace, calmness and various forms of greenery.

Anyway, I’m starting a new series.This time I'm showing two Snohomish County parks and both
were built with Brightwater mitigation money.

I hope the photos reveal the skill level and commitment to the general public of the
Department of Parks as they landscape and decorate with weeds and stumps, logs and odd and/or less than thrilling play structures.

Here are the first photos of, “Miner’s
Corner County Park”, located at 228th St. SE and 45th
Ave. SE.

Peruse the chart … for the
purposes of this blog, I’m referringonly to the two parts of no.3 – the project: “39th/228th Park
Facility”.

This sign was on a temporary office building
during the construction of Miner’s Corner Park.Note who is the “Designer/Landscape
Architect/Engineer”.

Looking eastward across the property
during construction of the park. Essentially they made a flat, blank piece of ground with the following exceptions:

The upright lollipops say: “Danger
Petroleum Pipeline, Olympic Pipe Line Co.”Note the power lines located above the
petroleum pipelines.

Photo taken last week.

I stood
approximately in the same location as for the during-construction photo.The petroleum pipelines and the power
lines are still there.

Also note - the two warning signs are best seen from 228th Street (note the street curb).

Mustn't forget one of the other major features of Miner's Corner County Park - the power lines.

So, you ask, why worry about Miner's Corner Park?

Because the people who designed Miner's Corner are the ones who want to spend 27 million dollars to replace the current Wellington Hills Park with a "Tournament-Level Sports Complex" ... and, as with the fore-mentioned car salesmen, expensive sizzle is what they're selling.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Returning to the basic question - Should there be a green buffer, a true Northwest park ... located between family homes and a full-blown industrial area?

Looking past the row of skinny trees,
located on the edge of the cliff at the western boundary of Wellington
Hills Park, is a lower valley filled with industrial businesses, garbage
trucks, storage rentals, and mounds of stuff.

Here's the edge of the hodge-podge commercial 'district' that's beyond the skinny trees ... just west of Highway 9 and Route 522. Razor wire, fences ... and mounds of stuff on the ground.

Beyond the dust (?) cloud and the tree line are homes and Wellington Hills Park.

This reminds me of TV commercials showing the "before" of a super fund clean-up.

I didn't see armed patrols of SMIRSH or KAOS, but a guy in a pick-up truck kinda glared at me.

I think this is landscaping mulch or maybe it's pothole repair stuff.

Another pile?What's this, you ask? It's a huge mound of worn out roofing shingles.

I mean, can you ever have too many old, used, extra large tires?

Nothing says Happy-Joy-Joy like a Smiley Face and bulging eyeballs.

The last pic is of the asphalt & concrete recycling business (the piles of stuff located in top third of the photo).

So, returning to the question of what should happen to Wellington Hills Park:

Having a buffer between the businesses in the Route 9 valley and the residential area of Wellington Hills Park is not a luxury, it's an absolute necessity.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

I lied. I can wait forever. Indeed, I hope the Department of Parks Sports Complex is never built - and it's soon consigned to that awkward looking, almost filled building in Everett ... the one with the spray painted sign: "Locked In This Building Are All Of Our Really Bad Ideas".

This is the intersection the tunnel-vision bureaucrats and their coven of "stakeholders" have decided, in their infinitely myopic and self-serving manner, should be the gateway to the "Tournament-Level Sports Complex" at Wellington Hills Park.

BTW - At the same time as these photos, the intersection at 195th & Route 9 was equally terrible.